If you were 8 years old, you’d find out that they were really aliens (or fairies) in disguise.
Ooh, would I get to be their God? Nice!
I would really struggle to decide which creatures I’d prefer the larvae to become: Alien-style acid-blooded HR Giger penis-headed nightmare xenomorphs, or silverfish.
What idiot calls them silverfish? 
Anyway, you WANT house centipedes because they eat all of the bugs you don’t want which are smaller, slower, and dumber than them. Which is all of them. And they are kinda cute and don’t bite.
Silverfish are fabulous because when you squash them all that’s left is a bit of silver glitter.
We definitely get carpet beetles in New England, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what you’re finding the lava of.
If you read more SF, you’d know that that basically never works out well for you.
Entomologist here.
Definitely a dermestid beetle (i.e. “carpet beetle”) larva.
Here is a link to UC Extension detailing biology and control methods. Diatomaceous earth can sometimes work as well.
As noted above, immature silverfish look just like adult silverfish, only smaller.
Whoa, an expert answer! A million thanks, mozchron. I guess that answers the question in the thread title; I’m not seeing the adults because they aren’t silverfish at all. I’m just relieved that I’m not going to open a storage closet one day and come across some sort of writhing mass infestation of silverfish. I guess it’s time to do some close inspection of my carpets and floor boards and yes, get that diatomaceous earth.
Thanks to everyone for relieving insect anxiety!
Well, the Alien-style acid-blooded HR Giger penis-headed nightmare xenomorphs probably wouldn’t be interested in your books, so they got that going for them.
That’s what I’ve heard them called around here.
Good god, they’re ugly. I leave spiders alone but house centipedes? shiver
I grew up with silverfish in the bathroom. As far as I could tell, they never caused any problems, unless you were squeamish seeing one in the bathtub or something.
Yeah, you SW Siders would. Except my wife is from Gage Park and NEVER would make that mistake. But she likes bugs. 
Your wife is from the neighborhood next door to me (or close enough). I actually don’t know where I first heard “silverfish.” I can’t for certain say it’s the predominant word around here, but that is what I know it as. I should do a poll of fellow neighborhood residents and see if this is some foreign influence, or whether it is the indigenous word.
What about my Alan Dean Foster collection?!?
Oh, you’re an entomologist? Cool!
There’s an entomology-related question I’ve been meaning to ask. It’s not really relevant to the silverfish/dermestid beetle question, but I thought I’d grab you as long as you’re here.
I recently heard tell that it is doubtful that domestic cockroaches have the capacity to feel pain. Is there any way that they could be genetically modified so that they could? I’d kind of like to replace the ones in my apartment so they can learn to dread my approach, and eventually decide to move out.
Heh. out of my area of expertise.